Early Favorite Watch: Sharks and Canucks
Oct 10th, 2008 • Fantasy • History • Injuries • Players • Playoffs • Rumors • Scores • Standings • Teams • Trades • Transactions • Uncategorized
Detroit’s most formidable playoff opponent seems to be the Sharks here in the beginning of the 08-09 season.
San Jose looks sharp behind Nabokov and the new defensive strategy for San Jose to go on offense. Whereas last season, San Jose looked to have all action stem from point-man Joe Thornton, now Defenseman like Christian Ehrhoff are getting into the shooting and scoring mix. Similarly, Duck defenseman Rob Niedermeyer added a goal, and Francois Beauchemin had five shots. Unfortunately, Beauchemin is not the offensive threat that Niedermeyer and Pronger are, so should pass more often. There was a situation last night when Beuchemin got the puck, had an open shot, had a guy down low to Nabokov’s right, yet Beuchemin failed to pass, shot, and Nabokov ate it up. The Sharks just dominated the Ducks and Ryan Getzlaf did not even shoot the puck once. Anaheim may be the better team, just more rusty and need to get better adjusted with the addition of Teemu Selanne. In addition, Chris Kunitz displayed his playmaker capabilities, however, San Jose’s defense was very good and seemed to bubble up any of Anaheim’s offensive attack.
The difference maker between these two teams on Thursday night was the respective goalies from San Jose, Evgeni Nabokov and Vancouver Roberto Luongo. These two were exceptional while both teams interestingly rolled over Anaheim and Calgary.
Most notably, Vancouver rolled over Calgary 6 to ZERO. Steve Bernier was fantastic playing with the Sedin twins and scored a goal. Mattias Ohlund scored a goal and a vicious hit on Jerome Iginla that send his neck almost through the boards. Alex Burrows payed tribute to his late teammate Luc Bourdon who tragically died in a motorcycle accident in the offseason, by scoring two goals. The Canucks still have young talent that is fast, like Mason Raymond, Ryan Kessler, and Taylor Pyatt. Vancouver displays great young energy and should be considered an early contender in the West.
FANTASY WATCH: Canuck Teammate Pavol Demitra expressed his belief linemate speedster Mason Raymond will have at least 30-goals this season. If you are like me and like 30-plus goal scorers than you may want to consider adding Mr. Raymond.
Also, you should add Steve Bernier to your team ASAP and Alex Burrows. They look too good and problematic for opposing defenses.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to start Chris Kunitz. This is Kunitz’s golden opportunity to be a great player at left-wing for the Ducks. Kunitz is an offensive spark plug so he should inject some life into your fantasy team’s offense too.
[…] The Sharks have scored the most points in the league with 97. They have given up 59 points which is the fourth best in the NHL this season. Currently San Jose is undefeated at home (13-0-1) while posting an impressive 9-3 road record. The 97 goals means alot of scoring is going on with seven Sharks having at least 20 points. Two of the seven are not LW Milan Michalek and RW Jonathan Cheechoo which is even scarier to think of. WATCH OUT FOR: RW Devin Setoguchi (plus+14) who is on an absolute tear over the last month, averaging 0.5 goal per game, 0.8 assists per game, 0.8 plus (versus minus) per game, 0.5 power play points per game. Linemate C Joe Thornton has one more point than Setoguchi with 30 for the season thus far and 26 penalty minutes to go along. Coming right third in points is LW Patrick Marleau (plus+14) with 28. These guys can flat out score, but in leagues where penalty minutes are important WATCH OUT for RW Ryane Clowe (25 penalty minutes). Clowe recently strung together a stretch of 9 goals in 10 games, and has recently gone assist streaking with six assists in the last four games. C Joe Pavelski is on fire right now with four goals and six points in the last three games. Finally, the Shark defense of Dany Boyle, Christian Erhoff, and Rob Blake have been outstanding leading the offensive charge combining for 43 assists. Goaltender Brian Boucher has been another bright part of the San Jose equation as the Evgeni Nabokov/Boucher Monster has combined to allow a 2.30 goals against average. (See the NB’s Early Season Prediction About these Bloodthirsty Savage Sharks). […]